Humans may not be descended from Neanderthals after all say scientists as they find DNA similarities are not the result of interbreeding

We may not, as previously thought, have a little bit of Neanderthal in us, scientists have revealed.

Similarities between the DNA of modern people and Neanderthals are more likely to have arisen from shared ancestry than interbreeding, a new study has found.

The team from the University of Cambridge published their new theory this week in PNAS journal.

Similarities between the DNA of modern people and Neanderthals are more likely to have arisen from shared ancestry than interbreeding, a study has found

Previously, it had been suggested that interbreeding was common, explaining our shared genome.

However, the newly published research proposes a different explanation.

Cambridge
evolutionary biologists Dr Anders Eriksson and Dr Andrea Manica, found
that the amount of DNA shared between modern Eurasian humans and
Neanderthals - estimated at between 1-4% - actually comes from a common
ancestor.